Butera receives Outstanding Manuscript Award for best clinical research publication

Photo of Katie Butera
Dr. Katie Butera

Recent Rehabilitation Science graduate, Katie Butera, DPT, PhD, received the Rehabilitation Science 2021 Outstanding Manuscript Award for best clinical research publication.

Dr. Butera developed and published the “Model for Integrating Pain with Movement” (Butera et al., 2016) in the Physical Therapy Journal, the official journal of the American Physical Therapy Association. This perspective paper provides a theoretical framework that links pain-related changes in nervous system processing with altered movement recovery outcomes.

Additionally, Dr. Butera’s dissertation work was published in Pain, the official publication of the International Association for the Study of Pain with a Journal Impact Factor of 6.03. Her findings indicate how low back pain subgroups empirically derived from sensory, psychological, and motor measures differentiate walking performance, as well as self-reported pain intensity, pain interference, and disability.

“This achievement is notable since many pain researchers and faculty have worked in this area for years and do not have a first-author paper in Pain, and Katie accomplished this with her dissertation work,” explained Emily Fox, PT, DPT, PhD, NCS, research associate professor, and Steven George, PT, PhD, FAPTA, professor, Department of Duke Orthopaedic Surgery, who were Dr. Butera’s dissertation mentors.

As a Rehabilitation Science student, Dr. Butera was funded by the Brooks/UF-PHHP Research Collaboration and the NIH T32 Neuromuscular Plasticity Training Program. She was co-mentored by Dr. Fox and Dr. Steve George, PT, PhD, FAPTA, professor, Department of Duke Orthopaedic Surgery.